The “murder” of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg
A planned 1953 show trial
Swedish Embassy building in 1944
1083 Budapest - Minerva Street – on Gellért Mountain
Edited by Tamás Szabó May 2012 – Budapest, München
Contact: [email protected]
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................1
Faded wounds, divided society in 2011.................................................................................3
1948-1953 Events in Chronological Sequence......................................................................5
Documents..............................................................................................................................6
Károly Szabó investigative detention................................................................................6
Who was Lajos Stöckler?..................................................................................................6
Lajos Stöckler's letter of gratitude.....................................................................................7
“Inventory” of items confiscated from Károly Szabó......................................................8
Two personal effects..........................................................................................................8
September 15, 1953 decision about release from imprisonment.......................................9
ÁVH Letter to Mrs Szabó Károly....................................................................................10
Contradictory Release Document....................................................................................11
Destroying the minutes of the investigation – January 15, 1954.....................................12
Dr. Erwin Korányi's testimony letter to Yad Vashem about Károly Szabó.....................13
Béla Balázsi – Head of the ÁVH Investigation Department................................................14
From Sándor Kopácsi's biography...................................................................................14
From György Moldova's book.........................................................................................14
Biographical Lexicon .....................................................................................................14
“They Wanted to Blame Us…” ...........................................................................................16
Károly Szabó........................................................................................................................17
Introduction
In Spring 1953 my father, Károly Szabó, technician, unexpectedly
disappeared without any trace. He left for his workplace, where he didn't
arrive. Our family didn't receive any information about him. In midNovember he returned home, just as unexpectedly without any prior
notice. His suit and thick leader shoes were ripped and were falling
apart. There were scars on his face and wounds which didn't heal until
the end of his life. He didn't speak much about the “unfortunate
misunderstanding” which led to hos imprisonment. They threatened him
until the end of his life, and he was haunted by the government's “good
advice” and threats to keep silent.
The 2003 III law established the National Security Service (ÁVH1) Historical Archive.
http://www.abtl.hu/index_h_start.html
Based on my request I received from the Archive in may 2011 documents about my father's
imprisonment. His documents are in the Archive in the larger subject called “Péter ügy” (“Péter
Affair”).
The Péter Gábor, once gard of the AVH, was purged from his post and the party in 1952 and was
a arrested on January 3, 1953. His and related group's trial was planned to follow the pattern of the
Communist block's 1952 anti-Zionist, anti-semite trials such as the Prague Rudolf Slansky show
trial and the Leningrad “Doctor's Plot”. Few months later they arrested the Jewish Community's
President and Secretary: Lajos Stöckler and Miksa Domonkos. The “inquiry” destroyed the older
Miksa Domonkos' health and led to his death few months after his release. Lajos Stöckler's was in
need of care until the end of his life, due to severe torture during his imprisonment. Because of their
condition the originally selected accused were not “suitable” for the planned show trial. A new
concept was invented. They arrested Raoul Wallenberg's last two dinner guests: my father Károly
Szabó and my father's childhood friend Pál Szalai. The third dinner guest, Dr. Otto Fleischmann
was already in the West. They were the last to see Wallenberg before he set out to the Soviet
military headquarters in Debrecen to discuss proving food for those in the Budapest Ghetto.
Names of the ÁVH officers listed in the interrogation documents obtained from the Archive are
not unfamiliar. On Internet I found further information about Béla Balázsi, who led the “Wallenberg
murder” investigation and played “historical” roles in the Rajk, Kádár and Imre Nagy trials.
The book “Wallenberg's Kidnapping” is the result of Maria Ember's 1990 research in Moscow.
She tried to discover Wallenberg's fate in the Soviet Union.
eBooks (PDF format)
Történelmi dokumentumok, 1945-2011
Historical Documents, 1945-2011
http://mek.oszk.hu/09400/09414/index.phtml
Correspondence about people rescued in 1945
Munkaévek külföldön - informatikában, 1968-2008
Working Years abroad - with computers, 1968-2008
http://mek.oszk.hu/08200/08236/index.phtml
Family background and my working years
1
Államvédelmi Hatóság” – State Security Authority. It was the secret police of Communist Hungary
-1-
Amazon Kindle eBook
Who was the man in the leather coat?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UB36KG
About Károly Szabó in 1945 and 1953-ban (English)
-2-
Faded wounds, divided society in 2011
My father's, Károly Szabó's ordeal, the planned show trial and that he was not “rehabilitated” as
Stalinist Communism faded led me to leave Hungary legally at first opportunity in 1969 on a tourist
passport. I note that one could feel some easing after 1962. Still, I couldn't imagine that they call
me “comrade” at work as they called almost everyone until 1990. Perhaps they would have left me
in peace even outside the Communist party, but this is not certain. I never took part in politics after
arriving in the West. No one was interested in this at my places of work and in any case it was not
permitted to engage in politics at work.
I was sad to see that since 1990, over 20 years after the one party rule, how overly political and
belligerently divided is Hungary's society. In my opinion wounds of the dark 1950-s faded on their
own. My father, Károly Szabó, tried to avoid being ruled by his experiences during his incarceration. He
knew that this would further damage his already weakened state. He frequently quoted for me, to calm me,
what they told him at the beginning of his imprisonment:
“Look at this matter as an accident,” said the examining officer “as if a brick fell by accident on
someone's head. This brick fell from very high and far, from Moscow.” This secret service officer was
probably not the type who is frequently portrayed. He was probably living in fear as were his victims.
Obviously such things couldn't be discussed openly until the Soviet army left Hungary.
It is still possible to hear revolting opinions stating that those who were arrested in the 1950-s
deserved their fate. I heard such views from retired lawyers in company of György Moldova, from
types who studied law at night. According to them the “betrayal of principles” began with loosening
of strict controls – for example they feel that re-interment of Rajk, who was executed earlier and
later rehabilitated, was a mistake. I suspect that Moldova is looking for such an environment.
Maybe he'll write in his typical reporting style about the M... party? Perhaps I could be mistaken?
A false legend is conveyed by Moldova's statement “The public wealth created by the working
class.”
“In the 1990-s people hoped that with collapse of the socialism Hungary will immediately reach
the standard of neighboring Austria economically and politically. Their expectations were not
realized. They soon felt on their own skin what is capitalism. They could see how the Antall-Boross
government hands over the public wealth created by the working class into the hands of its clients.”
In György Moldova, “Az utoló töltény 8” (The last cartridge 8), 2007
According to two left-wing liberal sociologists of the 200 richest entrepreneurs the great
majority, 156 already around 1983-1985, was in a “position”. They were not politicians, but were
part of the manager generation of the Kádár regime, with useful political connections 2. The quiet
internal regime change of 1983 was to this date not noticed by many. This was the start of the so
called “spontaneous privatization”. The “public wealth” and social advantages were redivided
already in 1983-1985 and not during the 1900 regime change. In 1983 everyone including
“successful entrepreneurs” was called “comrade” and there was a strict one party rule.
The 40 year long one party rule was difficult to bear without an ideological basis. This led to
emergence of a significant size segment of the population who explain their life based on being
faithful believers in the “ideals of Communism”. These were left out of the 1983 “spontaneous
privatization”.
There was a secret “rehabilitation” around 1962 for party members involved in show trials, such
as János Kádár's life sentence. These matters were handled in secrecy. My father, Károly Szabó, a
victim of the regime who was not a party member, was not rehabilitated. He died in 1964 at age 48.
It is known that after 1962 those who were involved with atrocities received separation
payments, many obtained sought after civilian positions or received further “internal” assignments.
Béla Balázsi turned against János Kádár before the Wallenberg show trial preparations and after
1956. He was dismissed with disgrace, without separation payment and later committed suicide.
2 Tamás Kolosi and Iván Szelényi “Hogyan legyünk milliárdosok?” (How to become a billionaire?), Corvina Press
2010
-3-
Echoes of the past sufferings are heard on both sides. Unfortunately even in 2011 we can hear
the one party system's past functionaries accuse the regime change's “capitalism,”
For sake of peace I quote what was said to my father about “the brick which fell from Moscow”.
If many of us think of this then maybe it is possible to reconcile the two hostile factions of society.
“The brick came from very high and far, from Moscow.”
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1948-1953 Events in Chronological Sequence
1948 January – Solomon Mikhoels, a Jew, leading Soviet actor and Chairman of the Jewish AntiFascist committee during WWII, assassinated in Minsk as Stalin's request. Members of the Jewish
Anti-Fascist Committee were arrested between September 1948 and June 1949. All except two were
eventually executed in the purges shortly before Stalin's death
1951 November 1 – Rudolf Slansky and 13 others Communist leaders and bureaucrats arrested
in Czechoslovakia and accused of being “Titoists”. Eleven of the accused, including Slansky, were
Jews. The trial started on November 20 and was noted for its strong anti-semitic nature. Slansky
was found guilty of “Trotskyite-Titoist-Zionist activities in the service of American imperialism”
and was hung on 1952 December 3. Ten other were hung and three received life sentence
1952 August 12 – Execution of thirteen Yiddish Writers in the Soviet Union (“Night of the
Murdered Poets”)
1952 December – János Kádár received life sentence from the Supreme Court. He was released
in July 1954. Béla Balázsi's ÁVH career is on the rise. He arrested János Kádár in 1951. In 1953
promoted to major and in 1953 to colonel. He took part in every significant political “investigation”
1953 January 13 – leading USSR doctors accused of plot to poison Soviet leaders. Eventually
hundreds of doctors were arrested, mostly Jews
1953 January 16 – Dr László Benedek, Chief physician of the Budapest Jewish Hospital, and
Lajos Stöckler, are arrested in preparation for the anti- Zionist “Wallenberg murder” show trial
1953 March 1 – Jewish holiday Purim. Stalin collapses in his dacha
1953 March 5 – Stalin dies
1953 March 31 – Soviet doctors exonerated by Beria
!953 April 4 – Béla Balázsi, director of the “Wallenberg Murder Investigation Department”
promoted to major
1953 April 7 - Károly Szabó is arrested and accused of taking part in Raoul Wallenberg's murder
1953 June 13-14 – Hungary's party and government leadership in Moscow. Mátyás Rákosi and
the four member delegation are reprimanded because of extreme industrialization, personality cult
and atrocities. Imre Nagy is appointed Prime Minister
1953 June 17-18 – Soviet tanks put down the Berlin workers' revolt
1953 July – ÁVH is combined with the Interior Ministry
1953 July 25-26 – the Presidential Committee announces amnesty. The Ministerial committee
stops arrests, interment camps and deportations
1953 August 1 – end of the “Wallenberg murder” show trial preparations. Those arrested are not
released until November to improve the “suspects'” health and appearance
1953 November 15 - Károly Szabó is released
1953 November 25 – the “century's soccer match” in London. England-Hungary 3:6
1953 December 23 – Beria executed
1953 December 24 – Gábor Péter and his group are arrested. He and Andor Csapó receive life
sentence. István Timár, Márton Károlyi, Gyula Décsi, István Bálint, Gyula Prinz, etc. receive 2-15
year jail sentences. Gábor Péter was later released
1953 December 29 – Béla Balázsi, ÁVH Investigation Department director, promoted to colonel
-5-
Documents
Károly Szabó investigative detention
ÁVH document: Károly Szabó's investigative detention: April 7, 1953 – November 15, 1953
His arrest was based on the following “admission” under severe recurring torture by Lajos
Stöckler:
“In January 1945 Károly Szabó helped Pál Szalai murder Raoul Wallenberg, Secretary of the
Swedish embassy.”
How can Stöckler, whose family of eight was saved by Károly Szabó on January 8, 1945, accuse
in his confession his rescuer of participating in Wallenberg's murder? Initially Lajos Stöckler and
Miksa Domonkos were accused. Miksa Domonkos didn't survive his torture by the ÁVH. Lajos
Stöckler's mind was clouded by torture and he required care until the end of his life.
Who was Lajos Stöckler?
Lajos Stöckler (1897-1960) was a lace factory owner. From July 22,
1944 he was key member of the Jewish Council leadership. He was the
de-facto leader of the Jewish Council during the Nyilas 3 rule when
Samu Stern and other leaders of the community went “illegal”.
He had major role in providing food and organization of the “Big”
Ghetto in Budapest. He was the Community's President between 19451950. He was arrested on trumped up charges. One of the accusations
against him was that he killed Raoul Wallenberg along with Miksa
Domonkos. He ended his life in Australia in debilitated mental capacity
due to the torture by the ÁVH.
3 Arrow Cross
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Lajos Stöckler's letter of gratitude
Letter dated February 26, 1943 about rescue of 154 people
and Lajos Stöckler's eight member family
Translation of Lajos Stöckler's letter
-7-
“Inventory” of items confiscated from Károly Szabó
Two personal effects
-8-
September 15, 1953 decision about release from imprisonment
ÁVH document summarizing why Károly Szabó was arrested and orders his release. It notes
trhat Lajos Stöckler withdrew his testimony.
Decision to release Károly Szabó took another month and a half and actual release took place
only in mid-November.
In György Faludi's novel4 the ÁVH major's speech represents the Fall 1953 atmosphere in which
the accused were released.
“I apologize to you in the name of the Hungarian People's Democracy for the injustice,
lawlessness and indignity, which you had to suffer … warned me that the law is six years in jail if
we disclose anything about circumstances, location and reason for our imprisonment. The good
advice which was received is that we should report anyone who asks us about the above and to our
immediate family we should say that we were on a study trip to the Soviet Union.”
4 From Pokolbeli víg napjaim, (My Joyful Days in Hell), György Faludi ISBN 963-7815-00-7, Budapest, Magyar
Világ Kiadó, 1989 (Biography)
-9-
ÁVH Letter to Mrs Szabó Károly
ÁVH document advising Mrs Károly Szabó that her husband was released on October 6, 1953.
He was released only in mid-November 1953.
- 10 -
Contradictory Release Document
ÁVH document to the prison warden ordering Károly Szabó's September 21, 1953 release.
November 15, 1953 was he actual date of release, not September 21 and not October 6.
Why was release delayed until mid-November? It required two months to hide the signs of the
five month interrogation. The wounds remained until the end of Károly Szabó's life.
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Destroying the minutes of the investigation – January 15, 1954
ÁVH document of destruction of records pertaining to Károly Szabó
György Beofsics AVH master sergeant tried to quickly destroy evidence of the “investigation”.
According to the above list 22 items (minutes, investigation plan) were destroyed already on
January 15, 1954.
György Beofsics, was an investigator in the Wallenberg show trial preparation and along with 76
others in the ÁVH with similar background was working for the Interior Ministry in 1962.
- 12 -
Dr. Erwin Korányi's testimony letter to Yad Vashem about Károly Szabó
- 13 -
Béla Balázsi – Head of the ÁVH Investigation Department
Interrogations of those arrested in context of the “Wallenberg murder” show trial continued after
Stalin's death and stopped on September 15, 1953 without results after the victims were tortured for
months. The “investigation” was led by Béla Balázsi who was promoted to colonel on December
29, 1953.
The first “suspect”, Miksa Domonkos, didn't survive the “investigation”. As a result of brutal
torture “Suspect” Lajos Stöckler's mind became clouded until the end of his life. Károly Szabó and
Pál Szalai were arrested based on Stöckler's “confession” after Domonkos and Stöckler were no
longer “fit” to appear in the show trial. Pál Szalai was released at the end of his ordeal, with white
hair at age 38. Károly Szabó didn't regain his health after his release and died young at age 48.
From Sándor Kopácsi's biography
“Béla Balázsi was a member of that brigade which arrested and tortured László Rajk and was
member of the group whose assignment was to dispose of the executed Rajk's body. In 1951 he
arrested János Kádár. Balázsi was a fanatic. He totally believed in his victims' guilt and regraded
“rehabilitations” as some type of political comedy. When he became aware of Rajk's national reburial he destroyed all documents related to the body's whereabouts. In 1956 he was for a while
distanced from the ÁVH, but after the revolution was put down he was reinstated due to request of
the Soviet advisers. He was one of the organizers of the Imre Nagy and related trial. His greatest
desire was to mix Kádár also into the trial. At the time Kádár was the the party's first secretary and
was Prime Minister. In the 1960-s Kádár succeeded to finally remove him. Contrary to the custom
Balázsi was not even compensated with a well paying position. After he lost his power, Balázsi
fanatically attacked himself with a knife – at first unsuccessfully. In the 1970-s I met him at a
market. He again had a knife in his hand with which he cut open watermelons, which he sold with
his new wife. He persecuted his prior wife, who was the daughter of a kulák 5. Bela Balázsi
committed suicide in 1975.”
From György Moldova's book
Béla Balázsi in György Moldova's book: Aki átlepte az árnyékát. (Who stepped over his shadow)
György Kardos' biography:
“They took me into a room, “ said Kardos, “where a lieutenant named Béla Balázsi received me.
Lieutenant Balázsi rushed straight to Gábor Péter with the interrogation minutes. He gave the order
in presence of Vladimir Farkas: “Kardos is arrogant! Give him a beating like no one else received
before in this house! They beat Kardos unconscious and four people carried him back to his cell.”
Biographical Lexicon
Béla Balázsi (Budapest, 1921 – Budapest 1975): ÁVH colonel. Comes from working class
family. Finished 9th grade. Studied tool making. He worked as apprentice at the screw
manufacturing factory. Between 1935 and 1940 he was member of a young workers' group. He was
called for military duty in 1942 and escaped in October 1944. He became leader of the Communist
party armed resistance group guided by Pál Demény. They destroyed the attacking Nyilas group at
Sashalom on the grounds of the Rex Film Factory. He was arrested on December 6, 1944 as a
deserter. He attempted suicide in his prison cell. As a result he was transferred to a military hospital
from where he escaped on January 2, 1945. He hid until arrival of the Soviet troops. On February 1
he was already an investigator for the Political Order Department, where he remained until 1947.
Between 1947-1950 his assignment was counter espionage. He became head of the ÁVH
investigation department. He became major on April 4, 1953, and was promoted to ÁVH colonel on
December 29, 1953. Between 1947-1953 he participated in investigation of every important case
5 small landowner
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deemed to be “against the country”. After start of the 1956 revolution and disbanding of the ÁVH
he fled to the country side. After November 4 he took part in “revenge” related investigations. From
January 1957 he collected material and confessions against Imre Nagy and those accused with him.
On June 15, 1957 István Tömpe, a high ranking official of the Interior Ministry, suspended Balázsi
from his position due to disclosure of state secrets. He was dismissed from the Interior Ministry on
October 1, 1957. Balázsi opposed Kádár. He became a vegetable vendor and committed suicide in
1975.
http://mek.niif.hu/00300/00355/html/ABC00523/00726.htm
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“They Wanted to Blame Us6…”
DRAFT
The story of a big conspiracy: “Who killed Wallenberg?”
By Tibor Farkas
For over forty years the following story remained one of the best kept secrets of the ÁVH.
By the early 1950-s, the international community intensified its campaign to discover the truth
about the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. The pressure became so intense that the Russians felt compelled
to do something about it. In a desperate effort to exculpate the Soviet leadership of any
responsibility, a diabolical plan was conceived. It had been decided that “evidence” must be
produced to prove that after 17 January 1945, when Wallenberg was last seen alive, he could not
have been arrested by the Russian Army, because before being driven to Debrecen where he was
planning to meet Marshall Malinovsky he was murdered in Budapest.
The ÁVH, the Hungarian secret police, was given the cruel task to prepare a show-trial 7 to prove
the assassination. Their plan was to serve a double purpose;
1. exculpate the Soviets of any responsibility for the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg;
2. follow in the footsteps of Stalin’s resurgent anti-Semitic policies; the current accusations
against the “Zionist doctors” in Leningrad, and the show-trials of Jewish members of
Communist party leaderships in the Eastern European satellite states: Rudolph Slansky in
Czechoslovakia, Anna Pauker in Rumania, etc.
The Russians and their over-zealous Hungarian counterparts conceived an absurd, and ridiculous
plan lacking any common sense;
Who killed Wallenberg? Leaders of the Hungarian Jewish community;
Why? Because he didn’t do enough to save more Hungarian Jews;
Where? In the basement of the American embassy.
Having determined the objectives of the planned action and designated the individuals who were
to become the principal defendants of the trial, the merciless mechanisms of the evil secret police
started rolling ...
6 Based on book “Ránk akarták kenni” by journalist Ember Maria
7 The term “show trial” describes a type of public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the
guilt of the defendant: the actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as an
impressive example and as a warning. Most of the time it involves a “sin” and a “planting of evidence”. Judges,
prosecutors, defense attorneys and the victims themselves collaborate like trained seals. Lack of concrete evidence
does not disturb the court. “Proof” boils down to the bare production of “confessions.”
- 16 -
Károly Szabó
In early 1944 Károly Szabó worked as a typewriter technician at the Swedish embassy in
Budapest. During the prior two years he was a soldier on the Ukranian front. He was in touch at the
embassy with Dr. Otto Fleischmann, a psychologist and doctor, who convinced Károly Szabó to
participate in rescue. His childhood friend and classmate, Pál Szalai, was by then in leadership
position and was the liaison between the police and the Nyilas party. Szalai gave his friend police
documents, which helped in his rescue work.
A Nyilas group occupied and robbed the Gyopár Street Swedish Embassy and dragged away the
embassy's Jewish employees to the Ghetto. Károly Szabó was able to get back the embassy building
and brought back the employes, which was drew Wallenberg's attention. After this Károly Szabó set
up a meeting between Wallenberg and Szalai. Szalai joined Wallenberg's rescue operation and had a
significant role in rescue of Jews in the Ghetto.
On January 8, 1945 the Nyilas dragged away toward the Danube
154 Jews from the Swedish embassy's Üllöi Street building. Under
direction of Károly Szabó armed policemen rescued this group. Lajos
Stöckler and his eight member family were among those rescued, as
well as the Jakobovics family, Edith and László Ernster, Gábor
Forgács, Jacob Steiner with his mother and siblings, Éva Löw and
Anna Kleiber.
Later Lajos Stöckler became President of the Jewish Community from 1945-1948, László
Ernster, a chemist, became member of the Nobel Foundation directorate, Jacob Steiner, biologist,
taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Éva Löw and Anna Klaber became doctors in Basel.
Professor Erwin Korányi writes about this rescue operation in his 2006 biography. He and his wife,
Alice Brauer, were among those rescued. After the war he taught psychiatry at the University of
Ottawa in Canada and Alice Breuer is a renowned psychiatrist in Sweden. Professor Korányi wrote
“Unexpectedly a group of armed policemen appeared and aimed their weapons at the Nyilas. A
high ranking policeman was Pál Szalai who worked with Wallenberg. The other policeman in
leather coat was Károly Szabó . I saw in the rescue group Lajor Stöckler.8”
There were numerous requests to Yad Vashem to recognize Károly Szabó as “Righteous Among
the Nations”. The request has been declined, for reasons which are not clear.
Károly Szabó
8
Dreams and Tears: Chronicle of a Life, Erwin K. Korányi, General Store Publishing House, 2006, ISBN
1897113471, ISBN 9781897113479 pp. 89 – 90
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